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It’s no secret that 2024 was not Sony‘s year. But Sony Pictures CEO Tony Vinciquerra says critics are to blame for Madame Web and Kraven the Hunter‘s disappointing box office performance.
In a new interview with the The Los Angeles Times, Vinciquerra railed against how the two superhero films were received this year by the media, claiming it directly impacted the films’ success in the box office.
“I still don’t understand, because the film is not a bad film,” he said of the Aaron Taylor Johnson-led feature Kraven the Hunter, which had the lowest debut of any Sony Marvel movie yet, with a global box office intake of $43 million, according to Box Office Mojo.
As for Madame Web, it earned just $43 million domestically and $100 million in the international box office, markedly less than the other Spider-Man adjacent franchise Morbius, which earned $167 million worldwide.
Vinciquerra placed the blame squarely on the press for panning both films.
“Madame Web underperformed in the theaters because the press just crucified it,” he said. “It was not a bad film, and it did great on Netflix. For some reason, the press decided that they didn’t want us making these films out of Kraven and Madame Web, and the critics just destroyed them.”
While pointing out that Tom Hardy’s latest entry Venom: The Last Dance also received lackluster reviews when it premiered in October, he continued, “They also did it with Venom, but the audience loved Venom and made Venom a massive hit. These are not terrible films. They were just destroyed by the critics in the press, for some reason.”
Considering the dismal success of Madame Web and Morbius, the Sony Pictures CEO warned that the company will have to reconsider whether they should continue creating franchises for characters in the Spider-Man universe.
“It’s snake-bitten,” he said of the Spider-Man universe. “If we put another one out, it’s going to get destroyed, no matter how good or bad it is.”
Fortunately for Marvel fans, this bad luck hasn’t touched Tom Holland‘s Spider-Man franchise: Sony is still moving forward with a fourth Spider-Man film, which is slated for a July 2026 release.
